Recovery Spotlight: Brittany Hartlein
The Mother She Was Meant to Be
Recovery Date: March 2, 2026
“Recovery has given me the opportunity to be a mother again.”
Brittany Hartlein is 40 years old and the single mother of a 15-year-old daughter.
Today, she is working part time, chairing recovery meetings, rebuilding her life, and learning how to be a functional member of society after spending most of her life in active addiction.
But when Brittany talks about what matters most, those accomplishments aren't the first thing she mentions.
She talks about being a mother again.
She talks about being someone her daughter can be proud of.
Someone her daughter can depend on.
And at seven months in recovery, Brittany is building the life she once couldn't see a way back to.
A Cycle That Started at 13
Brittany says she had been in active addiction since she was 13 years old.
Before recovery, her life became a cycle of failed relationships, joblessness, and homelessness.
There was no hope.
No end in sight.
Her daughter had been in the foster care system for six years, and Brittany missed her every day.
Then, during those six years, Brittany's mother passed away unexpectedly.
For Brittany, that loss severed what she describes as the last ties she had to her blood family.
The only family she felt she had left was the family she had built for herself on the streets.
Looking back, Brittany describes herself simply:
“I was broken and didn't even realize it for a long time.”
The Moment Something Changed
Eventually, Brittany experienced a moment she couldn't ignore.
DCYF informed her that her daughter was going to be moved three and a half hours away indefinitely.
Brittany watched her daughter break down.
She watched her beg and plead not to have to leave her mother, her friends, and her home.
And something clicked.
That moment became the catalyst that started Brittany moving toward the life she is building today.
She Deserved Her Mother
In the beginning, Brittany didn't have years of recovery experience to lean on.
She had the sound of her daughter's cry.
Every time she heard it, she remembered why she needed to keep moving in a different direction.
“I had already failed her, and myself, in so many ways that I just couldn't bear the thought of continuing to fail. She deserved to have the mother she was meant to have.”
Treatment at Cedar Grove and nightly Narcotics Anonymous meetings became Brittany's saving grace.
And inside those meeting rooms, she found something else she desperately needed:
People.
“The people in those rooms were my people.”
They helped keep Brittany from feeling completely alone while she fought to put some recovery time together and began rebuilding her life.
140 Days
Brittany is proud of many things today.
She's working part time.
She got her driver's license back.
She chairs meetings.
She is becoming the functional member of society she wanted to be.
But there is one number that carries a different kind of weight:
140 days.
From the day Brittany decided to put down the drugs, it took just 140 days for her daughter to come home to her.
Today, Brittany gets to raise her daughter again.
Recovery has given her the opportunity to become someone her daughter can be proud of and rely on when she needs her.
It has also changed the way Brittany experiences love.
She says recovery has cleared her mind and heart of the selfishness addiction instilled in her, allowing her to love the people she cares about unconditionally while continuing to stay focused on the life she is building.
More Than a Stereotype
There is something else Brittany wants people to understand:
Addiction does not have one face.
She wants to challenge the stigma surrounding it and the assumptions people make about what someone experiencing addiction is supposed to look like.
Not everyone experiencing addiction is homeless.
Not everyone who is homeless is experiencing addiction.
Some people maintain good-paying jobs for years while using substances.
Some people's lives change incredibly quickly.
And people arrive in addiction through different circumstances.
“No two stories of addiction or recovery are the same. And people in general shouldn't be so quick to judge.”
For Brittany, understanding that matters.
Behind every person is a story we may know nothing about.
Seven Months
October 2, 2026 marks seven months in recovery for Brittany.
Seven months might sound small beside stories measured in years or decades.
But recovery isn't a competition measured by who has accumulated the biggest number.
Seven months has already changed Brittany's life.
In those months, a mother and daughter have been reunited.
A woman who once saw no hope and no end in sight is working, showing up for others, participating in her recovery community, and building a future.
Most importantly, she gets to be Mom.
“I Can't Wait to See You on the Other Side”
Brittany's message to someone who is still struggling is filled with the same hope that other people once offered her:
“Recovery is possible for ANYONE.”
She knows it can sound cliché.
She believes it anyway.
“If I can do it, anyone can do it. You just have to want it more than you want to get high.”
And when someone reaches the point where they're ready to try another way, Brittany wants them to know there are people waiting.
“When you're ready to get your life back, the recovery community is here and ready to support you however you need it. You are not alone and I can't wait to see you on the other side!”
Seven months ago, Brittany began fighting her way toward a different life.
Today, she is still building it.
One meeting.
One day.
One choice.
One ordinary piece of life at a time.
And at the center of that life is something she fought incredibly hard to reclaim:
The opportunity to be the mother her daughter was meant to have.
This is Brittany Hartlein's Story of Survival.
Stories of Survival is a Sheryl’s Second Chance Designs project sharing real stories of recovery to encourage hope, challenge stigma, and remind our community that recovery is possible.
Wear hope. Spread awareness. Inspire change.